AQo

AQo (ace-queen offsuit) wins 64.4% of the time against a single random opponent, which places it 14th out of the 169 starting hands — the top 8.3% of the range. At a six-handed table (five opponents) its equity falls to 26.1% and its rank moves to 15; nine-handed (eight opponents) it holds 17.5% for rank 17. An ace-high hand — watch out for kicker trouble and domination.

Its suited/offsuit twin AQs runs at 66.2% (rank 10), a gap of 1.8 points. Losing the shared suit costs 1.8 points of raw equity. The hand directly above it in the ranking is ATs at 64.6%, and directly below is AJo at 63.6%, so three hands are packed into a band of 1 points.

Played heads-up against each of the other 168 hands, AQo is a favourite against 152 of them and an underdog against 16. Its best matchup is Q2o at 77.7% and its worst is AA at 7.2% — a spread of 70.5 points, which is why calling AQo simply "strong" or "weak" says very little.

AQo dominates 8 hands that share one of its ranks, pushing hardest against Q2o at 77.7%. It is dominated by 2 hands in return, the worst of them AKs, which leaves AQo with only 24.5%. A single kicker can move the number by tens of points, and the full table below lists every one of those opponents.

Within the 78 offsuit hands it comes 2 of 78. The strongest hand in that group, AKo, is 1 points away, and the weakest, 32o, sits 32.1 points below. Measured against the average equity of all 169 hands, 51%, AQo lands +13.4 points from the middle of the pack, and 13 hands in the full ranking are still ahead of it.

Adding players costs equity steadily: 64.4% against one opponent, 46.9% against two, 30.3% against four and 17.5% against eight. That last figure is 158% of an even nine-way share (11.1%). The Chen formula scores this hand at 9 points, and it arrives 0.9% of the time (12 of 1,326 combinations).

One caveat worth repeating: every number on this page assumes the opponent holds a completely random hand and that the pot goes to showdown. Real opponents hold ranges, and a range that has already put money in is stronger than random — which is exactly why AQo reads as 64.4% here but plays worse than that against a raise. Use the 168 rows in the table below to see which specific holdings are the problem, rather than treating the headline figure as a verdict on the hand.

AQo pairs the board on the flop — at least one of its two ranks hits — 32.4% of the time, and flops top pair or better (the paired card is the highest on the board, or two pair and up) 29.9%. By the river it has made a pair or better 48.7% of the time.

For straights, the flop completes one 0.327% of the time (64 flops), gives an eight-out draw 0.653% and a four-out gutshot 11.3%. By the river a straight using a hole card completes 3.49% of the time.

Put together, AQo flops a pair or better or a strong draw (an eight-out straight draw) 33.4% of the time — rank 150 of the 156 unpaired hands (tied with 3 others). The highest is JTs, T9s, 98s and 4 others at 50.6% and the lowest AKo, A2o at 32.8%.

Against one random hand, AQo goes from 64.4% before the flop up to 84.9% when either card pairs, and down to 54.6% when both miss. It connects 32.4% of the time (6,356 of 19,600 flops). Nothing ranks above A, so a miss never brings an overcard.

By board shape: rainbow 65.1%, two-tone 64.1%, monotone 62.6%. A monotone flop in one of your suits gives 72.5%. A paired board gives 66.5%, and a connected board (three ranks within five) 58.8%. The best row in the table is "Either card hits (a matching rank on the flop)" at 84.9%, the worst "Neither card hits" at 54.6%.

The 64.4% at the top of the page is a 400,000-hand simulation; this table counts every deal of the opponent's two cards and the five-card board (2,097,572,400 per starting hand), which puts the pre-flop figure at 64.43% (a gap of 0.03 points). Each equity is taken with the flop out and the turn and river still to come.